Secession in the United States
Attempts at or aspirations of secession from the United States have been a feature of the country's politics since its birth. Some have argued for a constitutional right of secession and others for a natural right of revolution. The United States Supreme Court ruled unilateral secession unconstitutional while commenting that revolution or consent of the states could lead to a successful secession. Except for the American Revolution which created the United States, no such movement, revolution or secession, has succeeded. In 1861, the Confederate States of America attempted, and failed, to achieve secession by force of arms in the American Civil War. A 2008 Zogby International poll revealed that 22% of Americans believed that "any state or region has the right to peaceably secede and become an independent republic." American Revolution The second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence opens with one long sentence: Historian Pauline Maier writes that this sentence “asserted one right, the right of revolution, which was, after all, the right Americans were exercising in 1776.” The chosen language was Thomas Jefferson’s way of incorporating ideas “explained at greater length by a long list of seventeenth-century writers that included such prominent figures as John Milton, Algernon Sidney, and John Locke, as well as a host of others, English and Scottish, familiar and obscure, who continued and, in some measure, developed that ‘Whig’ tradition in the eighteenth century. Antebellum American political and legal views on secession The issue of secession was discussed in many forums in the years before the American Civil War. With origins in the question of states' rights, dating to the Nullification Crisis, historian Maury Klein describes the contemporary debate: "Was the Republic a unified nation in which the individual states had merged their sovereign rights and identities forever, or was it a federation of sovereign states joined together for specific purposes from which they could withdraw at any time?"Klein pp. 32-33 He observes that "the case can be made that no result of the war was more important than the destruction, once and for all ... of the idea of secession".Klein p. xii Secession and the United States Constitution Constitutional scholar Akhil Reed Amar notes that the permanence of the United States changed significantly when the Articles of Confederation were replaced by the adoption of the United States Constitution. This action “signaled its decisive break with the Articles’ regime of state sovereignty.”Amar p. 29-32 By creating a constitution instead of some other type of written document, it was made clear that the United States was: Patrick Henry represented a strong voice for the Anti-Federalists who opposed adoption of the Constitution. Questioning the nature of the new political organization being proposed, Henry asked: The Federalists would point out that Henry exaggerated the extent that a consolidated government was being created and acknowledged that states would continue to serve an important function. However on the issue of whether states retained a right of unilateral secession from the United States, the Federalists made it clear that no such right would exist under the Constitution.Amar pp. 35-36 Natural right of revolution versus right of secession Debates on the legality of secession often looked back to the example of the American Revolution and the Declaration of Independence. Law professor Daniel Farber defined the borders of this debate: In the public debate over the Nullification Crisis the separate issue of secession was also discussed. James Madison, often referred to as “The Father of the Constitution”, spoke out against secession as a constitutional right.Ketcham pp. 644-646 In a March 15, 1833, letter to Daniel Webster congratulating him on a speech opposing nullification, Madison discussed “revolution” versus “secession”: }} Also during this crisis, President Andrew Jackson, in his “Proclamation to the People of South Carolina”, made the case for the perpetuity of the Union while also contrasting the differences between “revolution” and “secession”Remini pp. 21: }} In the midst of the secession crisis that would lead to the Civil War, President James Buchanan in his final State of the Union speech acknowledged the South would “after having first used all peaceful and constitutional means to obtain redress, would be justified in revolutionary resistance to the Government of the Union”, but he also reiterated the difference between “revolution” and “secession”Farber pp. 87-88: New England Federalists and Hartford Convention The election of 1800 saw Jefferson's Democratic-Republican Party on the rise with the Federalists in decline. Federalists became alarmed at what they saw as threats from the Democratic-Republicans. The Louisiana Purchase was viewed as a violation of the original agreement between the original thirteen states since it created the potential for numerous new states that would be dominated by the Democratic-Republicans. The impeachment of John Pickering, a Federalist district judge, by the Democratic-Republican dominated Congress and similar attacks by the Democratic-Republican Pennsylvania legislature against that state's judiciary further alarmed Federalists. By 1804, the viable base of the Federalist Party had been reduced to the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Delaware.Buel pp. 22-23 A few Federalists, led by Timothy Pickering of Massachusetts, considered the creation of a separate New England confederation, possibly combining with lower Canada to form a pro-British nation. Historian Richard Buell, Jr., characterizes these separatist musings: The Embargo Act of 1807 was seen as a threat to the economy of Massachusetts and in late May 1808 the state legislature debated how the state should respond. Once again these debates generated isolated references to secession, but no clear cut plot ever materialized.Buel pp. 44-58 Spurred on by some Federalist party members, the Hartford Convention was convened on December 15, 1814, to address both the opposition to the War of 1812 (which lasted until 1815) and the domination of the federal government by the Virginia political dynasty. Twenty six delegates attended—Massachusetts sent 12 delegates, Connecticut seven, and Rhode Island four. New Hampshire and Vermont decided not to send delegates although two counties from each state did send delegates.Hickey p. 233 Historian Donald R. Hickey noted: The final reportThe Avalon Project http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/amerdoc/hartconv.htm addressed issues related to the war and state defense and recommended seven constitutional amendments dealing with "the overrepresentation of white southerners in Congress, the growing power of the West, the trade restrictions and the war, the influence of foreigners (like Albert Gallatin), and the Virginia dynasty's domination of national politics."Hickey p.233-234 Massachusetts and Connecticut endorsed the report, but the war ended as the states' delegates were on their way to Washington, effectively ending any impact the report might have had. Generally the convention was a "victory for moderation", but the timing led to the convention being identified as "a synonym for disloyalty and treason" and was a major factor in the sharp decline of the Federalist Party.Hickey p. 234 Abolitionists Sectional tensions, with the North and New England pictured as the victims of a slaveholders’ conspiracy, arose again in the late 1830s and 1840s over the related issues of Texas Annexation, the Mexican-American War, and the expansion of slavery. Isolated voices of separation from the South were again heard. Historian Joel Sibley writes of the beliefs held by some leaders in New England: In the May 1844 edition of The Liberator, William Lloyd Garrison wrote "Address to the Friends of Freedom and Emancipation in the United States." In this strongly disunionist editorial, Garrison wrote that the Constitution had been created “at the expense of the colored population of the country”. With southerners continuing to dominate the nation because of the Three-fifths compromise, it was time “to set the captive free by the potency of truth” and “secede from the government.”Mayer p. 327 on the same day that this issue was published, the New England Anti-Slavery Convention endorsed the principles of disunion from slaveholders by a vote of 250-24.Mayer p. 328 From this point on, with the introduction of the Wilmot Proviso into the public debate, talk of secession would be primarily a southern issue. The southern theme, increased perceptions of helplessness against a powerful political group attacking a basic southern interest, was almost a mirror image of Federalist beliefs at the beginning of the century. South Carolina During the presidential term of Andrew Jackson, South Carolina had its own semi-secession movement due to the "Tariffs of Abomination" which threatened both South Carolina's economy and the Union. Andrew Jackson also threatened to send federal troops to put down the movement and to hang the leader of the secessionists from the highest tree in South Carolina. Also due to this, Jackson's vice president, John C. Calhoun, who supported the movement and wrote the essay "The South Carolina Exposition and Protest", became the first US vice-president to resign. South Carolina also threatened to secede in 1850 over the issue of California's statehood. It became the first state to secede from the Union on December 20, 1860, with the Declaration of the Immediate Causes Which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union and later joined with the other southern states in the Confederacy. Confederate States of America :See main articles Origins of the American Civil War, Confederate States of America and American Civil War. The most famous unsuccessful secession movement was the case of the Southern states of the United States. Secession from the United States was declared in thirteen states, eleven of which joined together to form the Confederate States of America (CSA). The eleven states of the CSA, in order of secession, were: South Carolina (seceded December 20, 1860), Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee (seceded June 8, 1861). Secession was declared by its supporters in Missouri and Kentucky, but did not become effective as it was opposed by their pro-Union state governments. This secession movement brought about the American Civil War. The position of the Union was that the Confederacy was not a sovereign nation, but that a rebellion had been initiated by individuals. Historian Bruce Catton described President Abraham Lincoln's April 15, 1861, proclamation after the attack on Fort Sumter, which defined the Union's position on the hostilities: Supreme Court rulings Texas v. White, was argued before the United States Supreme Court in 1869. The Court held in a 5–3 decision that the Constitution did not permit states to secede from the United States, and that the ordinances of secession, and all the acts of the legislatures within seceding states intended to give effect to such ordinances, were "absolutely null". However, the decision did allow some possibility of the divisibility "through revolution, or through consent of the States".Aleksandar Pavković, Peter Radan, Creating New States: Theory and Practice of Secession, p. 222, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007.[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0074_0700_ZO.html Texas v. White], 74 U.S. 700 (1868) at Cornell University Law School Supreme Court collection. In the 1877 Williams v. Bruffy decision regarding civil war debts, the Court wrote regarding acts establishing an independent government that "The validity of its acts, both against the parent state and the citizens or subjects thereof, depends entirely upon its ultimate success; if it fail to establish itself permanently, all such acts perish with it; if it succeed and become recognized, its acts from the commencement of its existence are upheld as those of an independent nation." [http://supreme.justia.com/us/96/176/case.html Williams vs. Bruffy] at U.S. Supreme Court Center web site. West Virginia During the course of the American Civil War, the western counties of Virginia making up what is now West Virginia seceded from Virginia (which had joined the Confederacy) and became the 35th state of the U.S. Although a large number of these counties, constituting about two-thirds the territory of the new state, were unwilling participants in the separation from Virginia, wartime conditions and the defeat of the Confederacy insured their inclusion.Curry, Richard O. Curry, A House Divided, A Study of the Statehood Politics and The Copperhead Movement in West Virginia, pg. 49, map.Foner, Eric Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877, Harper, 2002, pg. 39 "...twenty-six counties further south that had voted for secession the United States."Weigley, Russell F. A Great Civil War, "Here was yet another instance of the war's running out of control, creating its own momentum, with the predictable unhappy consequences. In much of the new state, the Confederacy in fact dominated throughout the war, all the more firmly supported by a local population resentful of attempts to alter its state allegiance against its will.", Indiana Univ. Press, 2000, pg. 55 Texas secession from Mexico The Republic of Texas successfully seceded from Mexico in 1836. In 1845, Texas joined the United States as a full-fledged state. Mexico refused to recognize Texas's independence and warned the U.S. that annexation meant war. The Mexican–American War followed in 1846, and the United States defeated Mexico. California Secession from Mexico The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, successfully seceded from Mexico in 1846. The Republic was annexed by the United States less than a month afterward during the Mexican-American war. California was not admitted to the Union until 1850, two years after the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill. Commonwealth of the Philippines In 1946, the Commonwealth of the Philippines, a United States territory, which became a commonwealth, was the only part of the United States to have gained independence. Previously, between 500,000 and one million Filipinos had died during a war of resistance (most from an outbreak of cholera that coincided with the war) following annexation in 1898. These figures have been debated over time, and it is not clear that the deaths resulting from cholera should be included as deaths resulting from the war. Recent efforts in the United States Examples of both local and state secession movements can be cited over the last 25 years. Some secessionist movements to create new states have failed, others are ongoing. City secession In 1967, the Wisconsin town of Winneconne seceded from the state of Wisconsin in response to being left off the official state road map. The alternative secession strategies were either to annex surrounding communities and go to war or seek an attachment to another state, preferably with a better climate.The History of The Sovereign State of Winneconne from the Winneconne Area Chamber of Commerce Negotiations with then-governor Warren P. Knowles ended the rebellion after one day. On July 13, 1977, the City Council of Kinney, Minnesota, led by Mayor Mary Anderson wrote a "tongue in cheek" letter to U.S. Secretary of State Cyrus Vance informing him of the city's secession from the Union to form the Republic of Kinney. Vance never acknowledged the letter. There was an attempt by Staten Island to break away from New York City in the late 1980s and early 1990s, leading to a 1993 referendum, in which 65% voted to secede. Implementation was blocked in the State Assembly by assertions that the state's constitution required a "home rule message" from New York City. The San Fernando Valley lost a vote to separate from Los Angeles in 2002 but has seen increased attention to its infrastructure needs. Despite the majority (55%) of the valley within the L.A. city limits voting for secession, the city council unanimously voted to block the partition of the valley north of Mulholland Drive. If the San Fernando Valley became a city, it would be the seventh largest in the United States, with over one million people. Other attempted city secession drives include Killington, Vermont, which has voted twice (2005 and 2006) to join New Hampshire; the community of Miller Beach, Indiana, originally a separate incorporated community, to split from the city of Gary in 2007; Northeast Philadelphia to split from the city of Philadelphia; and the rejection of annexation of what was the unincorporated area of West Indio from Indio, California. County secession In U.S. history, many counties have been divided, often for routine administrative convenience, although sometimes at the request of a majority of the residents. During the 20th century, over 1,000 county secession movements existed, but since the 1950s only three have succeeded: La Paz County, Arizona, broke off from Yuma County and the Cibola County, New Mexico, effort both occurred in the early 1980s, while during 1998-2001 there was a transition by Broomfield, Colorado, to become a separate jurisdiction from four different counties. Prior to these, the last county created in the U.S. was Menominee County, Wisconsin, in 1959. The problem with Menominee County was an act to replace the Menominee Indian Reservation from 1961 to its restoration in 1973. Another case is Osage County, Oklahoma, when the county was meant to replace the Osage tribal sovereignty, and the BIA declaration of it being a "mineral estate" not a sovereign tribal group nor the state's only Indian reservation in 1997. The High Desert County, California, plan to split the northern half of Los Angeles and the eastern half of Kern counties, was approved by the California state government in 2006, but was never officially declared in force. The state rejected the approval due to inaction of any establishment of county government in 2009. In 2010, southern Cook County, Illinois are petititoning to create "Lincoln County", to protest the dominance of Chicago. The county's possible largest city is Calumet City, Illinois, and only 600,000 out of 5.03 million Cook County residents live south of Chicago. Also there's a movement for the southeastern portion of Maricopa County, Arizona called to secede and establish "Mesa County" for Mesa, to complain about the county government mainly focuses on Phoenix instead of the entire county. 51st state proposals and movements There have been a number of 51st state proposals and movements whose goal is to secede from a current state and form a new state, still within the United StatesBeyond 50: American States That Might Have Been, National Public Radio, April 2, 2010. : * The book Lost States describes several examples including the proposed states of Absaroka, Deseret, Lincoln, Texlahoma and Transylvania. *Various groups of advocates in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan—alone or in combination with those in northern Wisconsin and northeast Minnesota—have since 1858 made calls for the establishment of a separate state called "Superior".[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9904E6DC153CEE34BC4E53DFB2668383649FDE "A new state - Ontonagon," N.Y. Times, 6 April 1858, p.4.] The State of Superior, The Washington Post, October 3, 1897 *In 1977, the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket tried to secede from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts; they also tried to secede from the United States and become an independent nation.Mike Seccombe, Talkin' About a Revolution, Martha's Vineyard Magazine, September-October issue, 2007.People Section Time Magazine, April 18, 1977.] *With the decision of the United States Supreme Court to hear District of Columbia v. Heller in late 2007, an early 2008 movement began in Montana involving at least 60 elected officials addressing potential secession if the Second Amendment were interpreted not to grant an individual right, citing its compact with the United States of America. *In March 2008, the comptroller of Suffolk County, New York, once again proposed for Long Island to secede from New York State, citing the fact that Long Island gives more in taxes to the state than it receives back in aid.Dowling College Sawicki announced interest in 51st State *California had a long history of attempted state secession movements, such as the State of Jefferson of 1940-41, the 1965 proposal of a new state of Southern California south of the Tehachapi mountains, and the current day "Inland" and "Coastal" California state proposals in the late 2000s. Alaska In November 2006, the Supreme Court of Alaska held that secession was illegal, Kohlhaas vs. State, and refused to permit an initiative to be presented to the people of Alaska for a vote. The Alaskan Independence Party remains a factor in state politics. Florida The mock 1982 secessionist protest by the Conch Republic in the Florida Keys resulted in an ongoing source of local pride and tourist amusement. Georgia On April 1, 2009, the Georgia State Senate passed a resolution 43-1 that affirmed the right of states to nullify federal laws. The resolution also included the assertion that if Congress took certain steps, including restricting firearms or ammunition, the United States government would cease to exist http://www.legis.ga.gov/legis/2009_10/fulltext/sr632.htm. Hawaii The Hawaiian sovereignty movement has a number of active groups that have won some concessions from the state of Hawaii. Neo-Confederate Movements After the end of the Civil War brought an end to the short-lived Confederate States of America (1861–65), some people of the Southeastern United States maintained a provincial sense and desire for the South to "rise again". Neo-Confederate organizations like the League of the South and an independent Southern Party called for the 10 southern states, popularily known as "Dixie" and "Southron", to have the right of states to secede from the Union or to legally able to nullify federal laws. Texas The group Republic of Texas generated national publicity for its actions in the late 1990s. In April 2009, Rick Perry, the Governor of Texas, raised the issue of secession during a speech at a Tea Party protest: "Texas is a unique place. When we came into the union in 1845, one of the issues was that we would be able to leave if we decided to do that...My hope is that America and Washington in particular pays attention. We've got a great union. There's absolutely no reason to dissolve it. But if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people, who knows what may come of that."http://blogs.chron.com/texaspolitics/archives/2009/04/perry_says_texa.html After Perry's comments received considerable attention and news coverage, Rasmussen Reports polled Texans and found that 31% of them believed that Texas has the right to secede from the United States, although only 18% would support secession. Vermont Efforts to organize a continental secession movement have been initiated since 2004 by members of Second Vermont Republic. Their second "radical consultation" in November 2004 resulted in a statement of intent called "The Middlebury Declaration."http://middleburyinstitute.org/middleburydeclaration2004.html It also gave rise to the Middlebury Institute, which is dedicated to the "study of separatism, secession, and self-determination" and which engages in secessionist organizing. In November 2006, the Middlebury Institute sponsored the First North American Secessionist Convention,http://middleburyinstitute.org/secessionconvention2006.html which attracted 40 participants from 16 secessionist organizations and was (erroneously) described as the first gathering of secessionists since the Civil War. Delegates included libertarians, socialists, greens, Christian conservatives, and indigenous peoples activists. Groups represented included Alaskan Independence Party, Free State Project participants,the Republic of New Hampshire the League of the South, Christian Exodus, the Second Vermont Republic, groups from the Cascades, Hawaii,,Hawai i Nation Maine,The Second Maine Militia and Texas,Texas SecessionUnited Republic of Texas Delegates created a statement of principles of secession, which they presented as the Burlington Declaration.The New York Sun and the Philadelphia Inquirer covered the convention. The Second North American Secessionist Convention in October, 2007, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, received local and national media attention.Bill Poovey, Secessionists Meeting in Tennessee, Associated Press, October 3, 2007; Leonard Doyle, Anger over Iraq and Bush prompts calls for secession from the US, Independent, UK, October 4, 2007; WDEF News 12 Video report on Secessionist Convention, October 3, 2007. Lakota people Some members of the Lakota people of Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the Dakota region are also making steps to separate from the United States. The self-proclaimed Republic of Lakotah has made a point to say that their actions are not those of secession, but rather an assertion of independence of a nation that was always sovereign and did not join the United States willfully. They note a failure of the United States government in honoring treaties, and abuse of Native peoples throughout its history. A statement of independence was released as of January 2008, and the United States government has not commented on the issue. Pacific Northwest There have been repeated attempts to form a Republic of Cascadia in the Pacific Northwest.http://www.discovery.org/a/2308 Retrieved 2010-02-06http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/09/nothing_secedes_like_success.html Retrieved 2010-02-06http://blog.oregonlive.com/mapesonpolitics/2009/03/should_we_merge_oregon_into_wa.html Retrieved 2010-02-06http://www.oregonlive.com/books/index.ssf/2009/05/_headline_one_states_fascinati.html Retrieved 2010-02-06 See also *List of U.S. state secession proposals *List of active autonomist and secessionist movements - United States (North America) Notes References * Amar, Akhil Reed. America's Constitution: A Biography. (2005) ISBN 0-8129-7272-4 * Buel, Richard Jr. America on the Brink: How the Political Struggle over the War of 1812 Almost Destroyed the Young Republic. (2005) ISBN 1-4039-6238-3 * Cain, William E., editor. William Lloyd Garrison and the Fight Against Slavery: Selections from The Liberator. (1995) ISBN 0-312-10386-7 * Farber, Daniel. Lincoln's Constitution. (2003) ISBN 0-226-23793-1 * Hickey, Donald R. "Hartford Convention" in Encyclopedia of the War of 1812. Heidler, David S. and Heidler, Jeanne T. editors. (1997) ISBN 1-59114-362-4 * Ketcham, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. (1990) ISBN 0-8139-1265-2 * Klein, Maury. Days of Defiance: Sumter, Secession, and the Coming of the Civil War. (1997) ISBN 0-679-44747-4 * Maier, Pauline. American Scripture: Making the Declaration of Independence. (1997) ISBN 0-679-45492-6 * Mayer, Henry. All on Fire: William Lloyd Garrison and the Abolition of Slavery. (1998) ISBN 0-312-18740-8 * Remini, Robert V. Andrew Jackson and the Course of American Democracy, 1833-1845. (1984) ISBN 0-06-015279-6 * Sibley, Joel H. Storm Over Texas: The Annexation Controversy and the Road to Civil War. (2005) ISBN 978-0-19-513944-0 Category:Secession in the United States Category:Confederate States of America